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Through Rural America to Dubuque

I-80 across Pennsylvania is a pleasant scenic drive, especially on this Sunday when there was little heavy traffic around. Late in the afternoon, and with more than 300 miles covered for the day, I pulled into a small motel where I planned to completely empty my vehicle and see if I could find the illusive lost keys. Albeit, despite all my searching, they were not to be found. It remains a mystery to this day.

My route took me through central Ohio, where a barn caught my eye. Not so much the barn, as the product advertised on it. It is after all, a product of days gone by – and may not even be any longer in production. I drove onto the property and met the owner.

An hour later I was aware of it’s history, when it was last painted and who had painted it. The owner, Grant Grundy, showed me his file of articles written about the barn over the years and gave me the complete background of his family’s involvement with it, as well as the history of the general area. This barn can be found just east of Sullivan OH, on route 224.

It had been my intention to find many of the historic barns, especially in Iowa, and photograph them. But alas, as a solo driver it is difficult to look for them whilst at the same time concentrating on driving, not to mention the constant rain on my way across that part of the country. And even thought the above mentioned is the only barn I saw, having met the owner, and learned so much about it, it’s history and the area, it well and truly made up for missing out on the others.

It was now time to move on, and without further ado made my way across Indiana and Illinois to Dubuque.